Pakistan Hockey Federation (PHF) which had been facing an acute shortage of funds for several months got a boost when it roped in Haier Pakistan as the lead sponsor. It is being declared a big positive step as Haier will sponsor the entire domestic hockey and international activities of Pakistan till 2020.
Definitely it is a big achievement. The performance of Pakistan at the recently concluded Asian Champions Trophy in Oman played an important role. The Green-shirts won the event jointly with India.
This created hopes of revival of the national game in the country. The players had been playing without any financial assistance from the federal government.
It is not a small achievement that a team which was sent to participate in the event with money borrowed from different sources reached the victory stand. Their head coach Roelant Oltmans had only recently resigned and joined Malaysia whom they defeated twice in the same event.
Haier Pakistan’s CEO Javed Afridi must be commended for supporting Pakistan hockey at this critical juncture. Haier Pakistan has become the country’s most important institution for sportspeople as it is involved in the two most popular sports, hockey and cricket.
The sports-loving nation will always remember the services of Afridi whose decision has lifted the morale of the players and the team management ahead of World Cup 2018.
PHF officials met Afridi, who is also Chairman of Peshawar Zalmi, to make this deal happen. The MOU ceremony was held in Lahore. President of PHF Brig Khalid Sajjad Khokhar and Secretary Shahbaz Sr said that Haier Pakistan’s decision would motivate the youngsters to compete with all their vigour.
Afridi said on the occasion: "Hockey is our national sport and we are recognised throughout the world because of it. In the past, Pakistan won four World Cups, three Champions Trophy and three Olympic gold medals.
"Pakistan has enormous hockey talent and we will soon climb the ranks again. We will support PHF for the international events, home series and domestic events as well."
The team for the World Cup has been announced. Pakistan’s newly-appointed head coach Tauqir Dar, who replaced world renowned coach Oltmans, has said that the Green-shirts have nothing to lose. "They will go all out to win the hearts of millions of Pakistanis and other hockey fans through their performance," said Dar, who was a member of Pakistan’s gold medal-winning team at Los Angeles Olympics in 1984.
He runs Dar Academy in Lahore which has produced a number of players who represented Pakistan. He knows the capabilities of each and every player as he has been involved in domestic hockey for a long time. Four to six players of the academy are always part of Pakistan team.
"They (Pakistan) played well in Asian Champions Trophy (ACT) and reached the final. They had also played well in the Asian Games but failed to reach the final because of one poor performance. We need to tune them in the right direction and minimise their errors during the training camp," Dar said.
He said it was great that financial issues of the players had been resolved. He said the players would now be free of financial worries and would be able to give their best.
Dar said Oltmans had done a good job with the Pakistan team due to which Pakistan played well in the ATC and Asian Games. "But we will go in the World Cup with some modifications. We need to adopt an attacking game plan. Our team management is working to improve the goal-scoring ratio -- field goals as well as penalty corners. There will be both Asian and European teams. Thus, different game plans and strategies will be devised," he said.

intikhab3@gmail.com